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Aussie drag queen and icon Courtney Act has opened up about her relationship to X-Men, praising the message inherent to the characters as important for young queer kids.听

Ahead of an appearance on the Christmas special of Shaun Micallef鈥檚 Eve Of Destruction, a clip from the episode was released where Courtney Act talked about her relationship with the iconic Marvel superhero team growing up.听

鈥淚 loved the X-Men. I think there was something about the message of the X-Men that I loved, which was like they were superheroes, they weren鈥檛 necessarily accepted and they had to hide their identities,鈥� said Courtney.听

鈥淎nd I think as a young queer kid, there was parts of who I was that I didn鈥檛 really understand, but I felt like there was something about me that I had to keep a secret.鈥澛�

When host Shaun Micallef points out that the X-Men are born with their powers, Courtney added on: 鈥淚 think around puberty it kicked in, which is kind of like being gay or lesbian or bi. There was something about the X-Men that spoke to me.鈥澛�

Recalling a scene from X2 where Iceman鈥檚 parents asked if he 鈥渉ad tried not being a mutant鈥�, Courtney said that though she didn鈥檛 grow up in a household like that, she still carried those fears, and was thankful to see herself in the characters on the show.听

 

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The queer importance of X-Men

First created in 1963, the X-Men have always been at their strongest as an allegory for persecuted groups. Throughout the years, Professor X and his band of misfits have survived brushes with religious zealots, human military action and lots of .听

X-Men: The Animated Series is a particular highlight for an entire generation of queer people, widely lauded for its ability to represent the feelings of the 90s 17c起草社区I+ community through a number of storylines and characters, as for IndieWire.

2024 was a big year for the X-Men, especially thanks to X-Men 鈥�97, which continues from where the 90s series picked up. Not afraid to mince words on the way intolerance breeds, X-Men 鈥�97 took the team of heroes back to their roots as heroes fighting to be accepted in a substantial way. A season two is on the way, though without writer following a between him and Disney.